Once Upon a Time in High School
by evaernst
Summary: Prompt: Sea Devil meeting in High School. Ursula is the shy new girl and Cruella her eccentric classmate who is not interested in Ursula at all. Then Ursula receives an invitation to a party that doesn't go as planned. Can this evening change their relationship? One-Shot


**I don't own Once Upon a Time or its characters. **

**I'm not a native speaker so I'm sorry for all grammar and spelling mistakes.**

**I've seen this prompt on tumblr and this idea popped into my head. I have to admit that I've never been to an American high school so this is a mix of my experience in school in Germany and stuff I've seen on television. I hope you enjoy it anyway!**

**Please, feel free to tell me what you think!**

It was her first day at her new school. Ursula was standing in front of the school gates hesitating to walk inside. Her family had only moved to Storybrook a couple of days ago and she had not met any people her age yet. Oh lord, she was so fucking nervous.

Ursula took a deep breath and walked inside. In her old school she was not one of the popular girls. She had had friends of course but she always had been the shy girl with the good grades but she had never been invited to the cool parties. She just hoped that she would find friends at her new school too.

Ursula entered the school building and looked around. She had been told to go to the headmaster's office first. Because she had no idea where this office was she started to walk aimlessly through the still empty school. She was very early so she would be on time for her first lesson. She hated unpunctuality. Surprisingly quickly Ursula found the headmaster's office and also her first day of school went surprisingly well. She met some nice people and also her teachers were quite nice. Especially a classmate of hers with this unusual name Cruella had impressed her. Something about her was just …she could not describe it but she liked the girl. She looked very eccentric with her black and white hair and her fur jacket.

'She would never want to be friends with me' Ursula thought sadly. 'Girls like her never do'

All in all her day had been good and she looked forward to the next especially because she had found out that she had several subjects with Cruella. Ursula used every chance she got to talk to Cruella even if she was obviously not very interested in talking to Ursula. That way week after week passed. To be honest Ursula became more and more unsatisfied. Her grades were still great and she got along with her teachers well but for some reason she had not found any real friends yet. Of course people were not ignoring her or were mean to her but they were not interested in meeting with her after school or have sleep-overs or something like that either. Unfortunately things were about to get a lot worse even if at first it didn't look that way. Ursula received her first invitation to a house party at Neal's house. Neal was the son of a rich manufacturer and lived in a huge villa. He was captain of the football team and about every girl wanted to go with him to the prom but he had been together with Emma Swan for one and a half years now. Ursula was so excited at the prospect of being invited to a party of the cool guys especially because Cruella would be there too and she could finally proof to her that she was not the boring bookworm they thought her to be. Ursula's father was worried for his daughter but Ursula tried to calm him. She was a responsible girl after all and he could trust her. Just for this occasion Ursula had bought a new t-shirt that hugged her curves perfectly and she applied her make-up carefully. At nine sharp her father dropped her off in front of Neal's villa.

"Are you sure you want to go there?" Her father asked worried.

"Daddy, don't worry. You know that I've always wanted to go to a party like this one. Maybe I'll find some new friends there." Ursula said and was just about to open the door when her father stopped her.

"Wait, darling. You've got your phone with you right? I'm going to pick you up at one, alright? You know you can always call me if you want me to come earlier."

"Thank you daddy" Ursula said gratefully.

"Have fun."

"I will" Ursula chirped and hopped out of the vehicle. At that point of the evening she was optimistic that she would in fact enjoy herself very much.

When Ursula entered the house the music was ear-piercing. It felt like there were a million people stuffed into the building. Everywhere plastic cups were tipped over and it smelled like beer and cigarettes. Ursula wrinkled her nose but her mood increased a lot as soon as she saw Cruella standing in a corner smoking a cigarette and from time to time taking a sip of gin right out of the bottle. Ursula made her way over to the eccentric girl.

"Hey Cruella. Nice to see you here" Ursula greeted her friendly. Cruella raised one of her perfect eyebrows and looked her over from head to toe.

"Nice t-shirt" She said. "Where did you get that? From the rummage table?"

Ursula swallowed heavily and shook her head. She decided to ignore that mean comment.

"You look nice. I like your fur coat." Ursula said and Cruella laughed throatily.

"I bet you do. You know if I were you I would go." Cruella then said and Ursula immediately stopped smiling. She blinked heavily to fight back the tears and she cleared the throat.

"Why do you say that?" Ursula asked quietly suddenly feeling stupid for coming at all. She wasn't like them. Why would they want her here? Her being invited was just one of their mean jokes.

"Sorry, darling. I've been taught not to lie" Cruella answered and Ursula turned around quickly and stormed off the room towards the front door but before she could make it outside someone was calling her name. It was Neal who was leaning against the doorframe of the kitchen and watched her closely.

"It's nice that you came. Is this your first party?" Neal asked and took a confident step towards her. Ursula quickly wiped away a tear that had made its way down her cheek with the back of her hand.

"Ehm, yes, thank you for the invitation. This is my fist party." Ursula said a little insecure.

"Don't worry there is a first for everything. How about you come into the kitchen with me? There are some friends of mine who want to meet you." Neal said and grabbed Ursula's hand and without waiting for her to agree he pulled her into the kitchen. There were at least ten of Neal's friends waiting in the kitchen chatting and laughing loudly.

"HEY!" Neal roared as soon as they were standing in the middle of the room. Ursula could feel panic rising inside of her. Neal's grip on her wrist tightened even more and all eyes were now resting on her. Ursula absolutely did not like being watched like that. In that moment she wished she had never received this damn invitation because then she could be at home right now watching some stupid television show with her father or watch her precious fish swimming around in their tank.

"Look who we've got here! You, and you and you owe me some money. She turned up now let's have some fun!" Neal laughed out loud and pointed to three other young men standing around them who started digging for money in their pockets.

"What do you mean?" Ursula asked with a shaking voice. She started trembling and tried to take a step back but Neal's grip was too strong.

"Well, honey, do you think I would ever invite someone like you to my party without a second thought?" Neal asked and laughed coldly.

"Please, let me go. I just want to go home" Ursula whimpered quietly and she couldn't hold back her tears anymore.

"Nope" he said and let go of her wrist. Before Ursula could be happy about that something hit her in the chest and something slick ran down her t-shirt. Then another blow. Eggs. They were throwing eggs at her.

"ouch" Ursula whimpered and her before silent tears turned into sobs. More and more eggs hit her and the laughter of the people standing around her became louder and louder. Ursula tried to turn away to protect herself from their attacks but in vain. They were everywhere and they were coming closer and closer.

"Please…" Ursula sank to the ground when an egg hit her head and she tried to cover her head with her hands and before she knew it she was lying in a fetal position on the ground. Suddenly the blows stopped and there was another voice shouting. A female voice. Ursula could not focus on that voice enough to understand what the girl was saying but she felt comforted by the melodically voice anyway. Suddenly someone was pulling her off the ground and guided her out of the room and out of the house. Then the girl helped her sit down on the garden wall and for the first time Ursula saw who her savior was.

"Cruella?" She asked surprised her voice hitching in her throat.

"I told you you should leave. They are a bunch of idiots and you are too good for them." Cruella said and took off her jacket. "Here, you can have my jacket. That must feel incredibly yucky."

"Why did you save me? They will be angry at you." Ursula said taking the jacket thankfully.

"I don't care. I don't want to be around people who hurt innocent people like you deliberately. You don't deserve that." Cruella said and shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. "Do you want to use my phone to call your father?"

"Not necessary, thank you. I have a phone of my own. You know I'm very grateful that you saved me. I've been really stupid to think that they truly wanted me here." Ursula laughed bitterly and looked away so Cruella could not see the tears in her eyes. As if she would not look ridiculous enough.

"No, not stupid. A bit naïve maybe but definitely not stupid. You know I'm very sorry for people treating you like this and also for being so mean to you myself. I…actually like your t-shirt. But I think that might be ruined now." Cruella said and smiled at Ursula.

"Thank you."

"Well, how about we leave this rotten place and have some fun of our own?" Cruella suggested and Ursula nodded eagerly.

"Yes, I would love that. How about I call my father and we watch some DVDs at my place?" Ursula suggested and Cruella agreed. So quickly Ursula talked to her father and he was there in no time. Her father looked at Cruella surprised. His daughter had never brought a friend home since they had moved to this little town.

"Who are you?" Ursula's father asked Cruella when the two girls sat in the back of his car.

"I'm Cruella Fineberg, Sir." Cruella answered politely.

"Well, then hello Cruella. Are you a friend of my daughter?" He asked and Ursula blushed. "Daddy, please stop interrogating her."

"Oh it's okay. Yes, I think so." Cruella laughed happily.

"Are you going to tell me what happened to you, Ursula?" Her father asked watching her in the rear-view mirror.

"Daddy, I'm fine. Cruella saved me, maybe I'll tell you tomorrow. For tonight I only want to take a shower and then watch some DVDs with my new friend" Ursula said and smiled like the Cheshire cat at the thought of finally having a real friend in Storybrook.

At that point no one knew that they would first become best friends and that that would turn into something more too. Many years later they looked back at that evening as the beginning of their happy ending.

**So I hope that was okay and you had some fun reading it!**


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